Ikea Type Furniture Focused on Comfort (Non-Tech Startup Idea)

Mar 1st, 2011

This is an idea that I have had for a while, and have said that I am going to pursue one day. But being real with myself, there are many other ideas I have that I will execute before I get around to this one.

So here goes.

Furniture at the same price points as Ikea’s furniture (or in the similar range), but rather than focusing on the look - you focus on the feel. Put a lot of focus on the comfort that whoever is sitting on your furniture feels.

The reason I haven’t done it, is because it is capital intensive. You have to either be a furniture maker that can make this stuff yourself, or have a ton of cash to invest in building the perfect first line of furniture - which is going to go through many permutations and a lot of wasted cash.

The end product should be plush, and feel heavenly to sit down on/in. It should be assemble-able and deliver-able just like Ikea’s furniture, for a similar price point. Make sure that you don’t compete on price with anyone else, and you focus on quality of the comfort. People will pay for comfort - see the success of Tempurpedic, Lay-Z-Boy, et. al. Make sure your margins are fat enough to keep you in business for a long time.

You should also have at least one flagship store that is the ‘Apple Store’ equivalent of ‘Comfortable Furniture’. You have to invest heavily in the feeling that the customer feels when they walk in the store.

To that end, the killer name for such an endeavor: Cloud 9.

Imagine when they walk into the store, they are “Stepping onto Cloud 9”. Make sure that both the store and the product live up to that expectation.

If you do decide to run with it, please don’t do it tackily. Do it properly and execute like Steve Jobs or Ikea would.

This is an idea I have held close to my heart for many years, and hope that by releasing it someone can run with it successfully.

This is not a “quick flip” type of business idea, but definitely a long-term wealth generation type of idea.